Welcome to Wikipedia Medicine's Research department. This is a place to discuss research ideas to evaluate the impact / reliability of Wikipedia's medical content. Here is an overview of previous academic research on Wikipedia. To suggest further ideas join the discussion on the talk page.
Compare a select group of WikiProject Medicine's best articles to those found in eMedicine and UpToDate. Will need a group of independent reviewers to carry this out or, at a minimum, a unbiased mechanism to do the comparison.
Give students tests pre- and post- allowing usage of Wikipedia / eMedicine / UpToDate. Test could include Kaplan's MCAT prep or the questions found in the secret book serious. We would than look at how much each source improved the students' test scores.
A scoping review has summarized the evidence to support the use of wikis and collaborative writing applications in healthcare [1]. Although there is some experimental and quasi-experimental studies of the effectiveness and safety of collaborative writing applications (such as wikis) as educational and knowledge translation interventions, the vast majority of included studies are observational case studies about collaborative writing applications being used by health professionals and patients. More primary research is needed to find ways to address the different barriers to their use and to make these applications more useful for different stakeholders.
Welcome to Wikipedia Medicine's Research department. This is a place to discuss research ideas to evaluate the impact / reliability of Wikipedia's medical content. Here is an overview of previous academic research on Wikipedia. To suggest further ideas join the discussion on the talk page.
Compare a select group of WikiProject Medicine's best articles to those found in eMedicine and UpToDate. Will need a group of independent reviewers to carry this out or, at a minimum, a unbiased mechanism to do the comparison.
Give students tests pre- and post- allowing usage of Wikipedia / eMedicine / UpToDate. Test could include Kaplan's MCAT prep or the questions found in the secret book serious. We would than look at how much each source improved the students' test scores.
A scoping review has summarized the evidence to support the use of wikis and collaborative writing applications in healthcare [1]. Although there is some experimental and quasi-experimental studies of the effectiveness and safety of collaborative writing applications (such as wikis) as educational and knowledge translation interventions, the vast majority of included studies are observational case studies about collaborative writing applications being used by health professionals and patients. More primary research is needed to find ways to address the different barriers to their use and to make these applications more useful for different stakeholders.